African Leaders waking up to reality

The U.S., EU, AU and UN mission to Congo all commended President Joseph Kabila on Thursday for agreeing not to seek a third term in an election, a decision that has calmed fears of the country sliding into chaos.

After years of speculation over his intentions, Mr Kabila consented to obey the two-term limit imposed by Democratic Republic of Congo’s constitution on Wednesday, by not entering his name into a poll set for December 23.

As a parting shot, he picked a hard-core former interior minister, who has been placed under EU sanctions, to stand instead.

TRENDING

*. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yussuff Lasun, has announced that the National Assembly will reconvene on Tuesday, August 14.
According to Lasun, the presidential budget request to fund INEC’s operations for the 2019 polls will be the primary agenda
The National Assembly went on recess on the 24th of July and was supposed to reconvene in September.

*. Again, Senator Dino Melaye did not appear in court on Wednesday to answer the charges bordering on gunrunning levied against him and two others. However, the two suspects charged alongside the senator, Kabir Seidu, aka Osama; and Nuhu Salihu aka Smally were in court. The trial magistrate, Sulyman Abdalah, had, at the last hearing, fixed Wednesday, August 9, to commence trial following the complaints from Melaye that he was attacked on his way to Lokoja to honour an invitation from the Police.

NEWS FLASH

1. EXCLUSIVE:
Ibrahim Idris, lG of police, is seeking the permission of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, to search the residence of Lawal Daura, sacked DGof the DSS. Osinbajo ordered the dismissal of Daura on Tuesday following the invasion of the National Assembly Complex. He said an intelligence team of the police had quizzed the sacked DSS DG who had made some disclosure. Idris said Daura claimed that he acted on the intelligence that some persons were planning to smuggle arms into the national assembly but wondered why Daura did not get clearance from Osinbajo or share his findings with sister security agencies.

2. PRESIDENCY:
The IG of Police has accused Lawal Daura of gross violation of Nigerian Constitution in Tuesday’s barricade of the National Assembly by State Security Service operatives. In a report on the controversial incident prepared for Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, Mr Idris said Mr Daura was working for some politicians for selfish interest, but did not name the accomplices. He said Mr Daura did not consult with other security agencies before ordering the siege, and questioned the validity of a security report that allegedly anticipated a violence at the parliament.

3. PRESIDENCY:
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has described the current political happenings in Nigeria as a battle between the good and bad elements whose aim was to continue suffocating the nation by milking it dry. He said the Federal Government “would not compromise” in the ongoing war against corruption and protection of national interest. Mr Osibanjo made the declaration in Daura on Thursday while addressing thousands of APC loyalists at a campaign rally for Saturday’s Katsina north senatorial district bye-election.

4. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed says his mission as new All Progressives Congress (APC) leader in Kwara is not to contest any elective position in 2019 but to rescue the state from hawks. The minister, who spoke at a meeting of Congress of Kwara Progressives said the recent defection from APC by the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and his followers had presented an opportunity for the people to liberate the state from those who had held it to ransom. The minister underscored the need for the people to be united and shelve their personal ambition to rescue the state.

5. EFCC:
EFCC has released Ita Ekpeyong, the former DG of SSS. Mr Ekpeyong was arrested on Thursday afternoon following a raid of his Abuja home by anti-graft detectives.
He was moved to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja for questioning, multiple sources said. He was subsequently released a few hours later. A spokesperson for the EFCC declined comments on the development Thursday night. Mr Ekpeyong was released after the EFCC agents realised he was unable yo provide much information about the controversial former director of the SSS, Lawal Daura.

6. EFCC:
EFCC is set to invite the sacked DG of DSS Lawan Daura, for questioning over an alleged N17 billion scam that happened while he was in office. Daura, who was sacked by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo following the siege to the National Assembly by DSS operatives on Tuesday August 7th, is currently being interrogated by the police. He was arrested by officials of Federal-SARS shortly after the termination of his appointment. According to an EFCC source, operatives of the anti-graft agency on Tuesday evening visited the police facility at Guzape Abuja where Daura was being held preparatory to receiving him.

7. DSS:
Intelligence authorities have released Lawal Daura and confiscated his international passport. The top spy chief was disgraced out of office and taken into custody on Tuesday after ordering the deployment of SSS operatives to lay siege to the National Assembly. Mr Daura was released on Wednesday evening from a guest house run by the State Security Service in Gwarimpa area of Abuja where he had been placed on house arrest since Acting-President Yemi Osinbajo ordered his dismissal on Tuesday.

8. POLITICS:
APC has launched a scathing attack on the senate president, Bukola Saraki, accusing him of serial crimes and urging senators to do all they could to sack him. The party has been loud in its call for Mr Saraki’s removal since his defection last week to the PDP. It insists the position is for the party with majority members — a position it says it continues to hold despite a string of losses to the PDP. In what seems its most ascerbic comment on the matter yet, the APC, through its new spokesperson on Thursday, Yekini Nabena, said Mr Saraki was a traitor who betrayed even his new party, PDP, in 2014.

9. POLITICS:
Dr. Bukola Saraki has lampooned APC, saying that he cannot descend into the gutter with those he described as characters in the party. Saraki who was responding to remarks by the APC that he was not fit for the position of Senate President, said that he was not surprised at their comments because as party members in the APC, they were yet to recover from the shock of the attempt to subvert the nation’s democracy. “We can’t descend into the gutter with these characters. Apparently, they have not recovered from the shock of their Tuesday’s failed attempt to subvert democracy.”, he said

10. ENTERTAINMENT:
Davido isn’t only making back to back hit songs these days as he is now expanding his music business empire with theacquisition of a private jet and plans to venture into movies production. The music star announced that he had gotten a private jet on his Twitter and Instagram pages. On his Twitter page, he went on to tweet about the arrival of his airline. “Air OBO soon land !! THIS ONE NAH FINAL,” he wrote. It was the same story on his Instagram stories as he posted a video of catalog showing a private jet and captioned the clip the quote.